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Come Wednesday, April 22, the
evening sky over this theatrical mecca will glow with a light
visible for 200 miles. Equal to 340,000 auto head lamps, the
powerful spotlight will open the most heroic variety show ever
staged, the 1964-65 New York World's Fair.
A billion-dollar spectacular, the Fair will star a cast of
thousands in a 650-acre setting. its colorful account of the
world's ideas, customs and achievements will run from mid-April
to mid-October, both this year and next, playing to a total of
70 millions visitors.
Imaginative architects and builders have speedily transformed
Flushing Meadows Park into a dazzling city of soaring arches,
cantilevered beams and gleaming glass -- in all, 150 exhibitor
pavilions encircling the symbolic Unisphere, a 13-story, 250-ton
stainless steel globe.
As showtime nears, spirited dancers gyrate to the rhythms
of the limbo, flamenco and calypso in the quaint pavilions built
for 50 foreign exhibitors.
Being readied are a geisha house, temples and pagodas and
collections of jewels and art from all corners of the world.
Most foreign pavilions, too, will include restaurants serving
native food and drink.
Elsewhere under the Unisphere, major states, New York City
and the Federal Government are painting a 20-pavilion panorama
of America. Sights will range from Indian to hula dancing, from
old-time trains to space vehicles and modes of futuristic cities.
States will likewise point with pride to reproductions of a lavish
movie set, the aurora borealis and famous national landmarks.
American industry will be the largest exposition group, accounting
for more than 200 of the Fair's 300-plus exhibitors. The firms'
diverse displays, from a demonstration of atomic fusion to a
candy factory, are being assembled in 35 giant showcases. These
pavilions ring a huge reflecting pool, site of nightly music,
colored fountains and dazzling fireworks.
Amid this industrial montage is the Du Pont Pavilion, a two-story,
carousel-like building 180 feet in diameter.
Du Pont's show theme will be the "Wonderful World of
Chemistry." Entertaining songs and dances blended with startling
demonstrations will portray the chemical industry's origin, progress
and contributions to mankind.
Currently, seven casts are rehearsing the variety segment,
which will be presented more than 10,000 times in two 300-seat
theaters. The casts rate as unusual, for they include six choreographed
movie screens.
Wheeling freely over the theater stages, the screens will
project humorous characters who sing and dance with live performers.
Demanding perfect synchronization of images and actors, this
interplay leads to such surprises as a screen character mystifyingly
handing a bag of groceries to a live actress. In another scene,
an actress hosing down an auto projected on one screen somehow
douses a figure on another screen across the stage.
The lighthearted show is built around an original score written
by director Michael Brown, who has penned music and lyrics for
many successful Broadway and supper club performances.
Show director Michael Brown and assistants consider
last-minute revisions in musical score.
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Brown's whimsical short course on chemistry's evolution begins
with the ancient Greeks. They're depicted as furiously pondering
the earth's makeup but never testing their ideas.
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By contrast, frustrated alchemists seek to turn lead into
gold by experimenting wildly and with little regard for logic.
Du Pont's alchemist fares better than his Middle Ages contemporaries:
his muddy potion congeals into peanut brittle.
The chaos of the past ultimately becomes chemistry with France's
Lavoisier, who identifies the earth's basic elements and the
formula for water. He also takes on a bright, young apprentice
named E. I. du Pont, who later emigrated to America and founded
a company dedicated to both thinking and testing.
Better Things are Born
Brown chronicles the results of Du Pont Company research in
amusing skits. There's Grocer Goodfellow who tries delicately
to shoo flies from food in a 1915 general store. His worries
end when Du Pont introduces moisture proof cellophane, which
in turn helped to usher in the supermarket with its attractively
packaged and protected foods.
In another scene, a madcap musical trio of women salutes "Freon"
propellants, which gave birth to the aerosol industry. Working
push buttons on spray cans topped with whistles, the women swing
into an off-key tune. Whereupon one spray can rebels, covering
its handler with a foamy lather. The woman's distraught look
turns to pure pleasure, though, when she licks her lips and discovers
"Butterscotch!"
At the 1939-40 World's Fair, Du Pont announced nylon. This
year the company will unveil another exciting contribution to
fashion: "Corfam" poromeric upper material for footwear.
Fashion in apparel will share the spotlight. Predictions of
styles to come this summer and next year will be made by four
noted designers, Donald Brooks of Townley, Oleg Cassini, David
Kidd of Arthur Jablow, and Ceil Chapman. Clothing will capitalize
on the properties of DuPont fibers: nylon, "Orlon"
acrylic, "Dacron" polyester, "Lycra" spadex
and "Antron" nylon.
Audiences will end their DuPont visit in a product arena where
demonstrators will present a fast-moving show of "chemical
magic." One example of the surprises planned will be a plain
piece of fabric which, dipped into a solution, emerges as an
American flag. The trick lies in Du Pont selective dyes applied
to the cloth beforehand and activated by the solution.
In a demonstration of heat resistance, a narrator will walk
about a stage carrying a red-hot rivet. Visitors will discover
that his hand is shielded by a paper-thin sheet of "Tipersul"
fibrous potassium titanate.
In addition, the company has lined up an elegant white mink
coat to register another product's advantage: the non drip property
of "Lucite" wall paint. The coat will serve as a drop
cloth while a demonstrator standing over it confidently splatters
dark blue paint on a wooden panel.
Several major products will also feature prominently outside
Du Pont's own building. For example, 14 room settings in the
Pavilion of American Interiors will feature carpets of Du Pont
501 nylon, plus upholstery, draperies and furniture cushions
of "Dacron."
The House of Good Taste, an exhibit of outstanding architecture
and decor, will include upholstery and wall covering products
of the du Pont Fabrics and Finishes Dept. Du Pont paint will
also protect the exhibits' house of tomorrow.
Lending added excitement to the Fair will be an array of amusements
including a lavish ice show, a 90-minute review of American musical
comedy and "Les Poupees de Paris," an hour-long puppet
show.
Rides will abound. Among them will be "shooting the rapids"
in a hollow log, a monorail and a simulated helicopter that rises
100 feet. The entire World's Fair will be seen from the Swiss
Sky Ride, gondola cars swinging on cables 112 feet overhead.
Although riders will look down on a spectacle lasting only
two years, they will leave with a permanent legacy: better understanding
among peoples of the world.
David Carter, a Brown aide, puts members of Du
Pont cast through an original dance step.
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